Graham Bell (biologist)
Graham Arthur Charlton Bell is a British academic, writer, and evolutionary biologist with interests in the evolution of sexual reproduction and the maintenance of variation. He developed the "tangled bank" theory of evolutionary genetics after observing the asexual and sexual behaviour patterns of aphids as well as monogonont rotifers.
Early life and education
Bell was born on 3 March 1949 in Leicester, England, to Arthur Charlton Bell and Edna May Bell. He was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys and St Peter's College, Oxford, where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1970 followed by a Doctor of Philosophy degree in animal ecology in 1973 for research on smooth newts.Career and research
Bell emigrated to Canada in 1975 where he worked as a biologist for the Alberta Civil Service until 1976. In 1976, he joined the faculty of McGill University as a temporary lecturer. He was appointed a Professor in 1989. In 1992, he was appointed Molson Chair of Genetics. He was Director of the Redpath Museum from 1995 to 2005.He is the author of The Masterpiece of Nature which was described by Richard Dawkins as a 'beautifully written tour de force', Sex and Death in Protozoa: The History of Obsession and Selection: The Mechanism of Evolution first published in 1996 with a second edition in 2008. His other books include The Evolution of Life and The Basics of Selection.
Bell was a co-founder and founding President of the Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution.